2008-2009 hydrogen design contest: green buildings with ... contest submission 0… · adrienne...
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2008-2009 Hydrogen Design Contest: Green Buildings with Hydrogen
Mark Estill Student Centre
University of Waterloo
December 19, 2008
Faculty Advisor:
Dr. Michael Fowler
Team Members
Rob Enouy Tim Pasche
Andrea Murphy Chris Rea
Adrienne Nelson Ankit Sharma
Neal Tanaka
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Executive Summary
The following design illustrates a fully implementable 76,000 ft2 Mark Estill student centre at
Farmingdale, N.Y. with an environmentally conscious building design with renewable
technology in order to mitigate dependence on carbon fuels. The renewable energy sources
consist of photovoltaic cells, wind turbines, biomass harvesting and reduced consumption
through energy efficient design. System design will allow excess energy from renewable
resources to produce hydrogen gas from an electrolyser. The hydrogen gas is used as a storage
medium, such that it may be converted back into usable electricity via a Proton Exchange
Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC), or used as transportation fuel for vehicles.
Hydrogen is generated via electrolysis at a rate of 5.2 kWh/Nm3. Produced hydrogen must be
pressurized in a storage vessel to be used at a later date. During peak hours when the renewable
resources cannot meet load demands, the stored hydrogen can be processed in a 130kW PEMFC
to produce a supplementary source of energy for the centre. This flexibility allows for grid draw
at peak hours to be completely eliminated, which reduces the overall costs of operations for the
student life centre.
Photovoltaic cells comprise the southward facing roof area of 23,548 ft2 to maximize solar gain
and are capable of generating 70kW at peak hours during the summer months. Wind turbines
will be erected around the outside of the building and are capable of generating 40 kW at peak
hours during the high wind months. The biomass system will collect food-waste throughout the
campus and return it to a process by which the biodegradable substances are passed through an
accelerated decomposition process to produce combustible gases that can be converted into 30
kW of electricity via a Stirling engine.
A geothermal system will be installed in conjunction with a small natural gas furnace in order to
meet the thermal demands of the building. The geothermal has the ability to produce 70% of the
building‟s max heat draw and can be powered by renewable resource energy production during
peak hours. The supplementary gas furnace is required for the months of November, December,
and January when the geothermal system is insufficient to meet heating demands.
Reinforced insulation in the exterior walls and roof will reduce the energy losses to surrounding
and thereby reduce the overall energy requirements of the building. North facing portions of the
roof will be lined with two layers of the most energy efficient windows available in order to
allow for indirect sunlight during the day without incurring a large energy loss. Also by using a
state of the art ventilation system, it is possible to maximize the return off of the heat energy
produced by the geothermal system.
The costs of the student life centre construction and materials were obtained from RS Means and
applied to this specific project. These costs can be considered accurate within 10% of actual
costs for the summer of 2009. The building designs are laid out in topographical, section,
elevation, and render plots via AutoCad.
The costs and benefits associated with renewable resources are laid out in detail and an
economic/business plan indicates the feasibility of implementing this project.
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Table of Contents Executive Summary ...................................................................................................................................... ii
1. The Design ............................................................................................................................................ 1
1.1 Building Design ............................................................................................................................ 2
1.1.1 Plumbing Plan ....................................................................................................................... 6
1.1.2 Structural Design Description ............................................................................................... 6
1.1.3 Electrical Loading Details ..................................................................................................... 6
1.2 Solar Design .................................................................................................................................. 6
1.3 Geothermal Design ....................................................................................................................... 8
1.3.1 Calculations ........................................................................................................................... 8
1.4 Windmill Design ........................................................................................................................... 9
1.5 Biomass Design ............................................................................................................................ 9
1.5.1 Anaerobic Digestion ........................................................................................................... 10
1.5.2 Method ................................................................................................................................ 10
1.5.3 Calculations ......................................................................................................................... 11
1.6 Hydrogen Design ........................................................................................................................ 12
2. Safety Analysis ................................................................................................................................... 13
2.1 Geothermal Safety Analysis........................................................................................................ 13
2.2 Hydrogen Safety Analysis .......................................................................................................... 13
2.3 Solar Safety Analysis .................................................................................................................. 13
2.4 Wind Power Safety Analysis ...................................................................................................... 14
2.5 Biogas Safety Concerns .............................................................................................................. 14
2.6 Most Important Safety Concerns ................................................................................................ 15
2.6.1 Electrolyser ......................................................................................................................... 15
2.6.2 Hydrogen Storage Tank ...................................................................................................... 15
2.6.3 Biogas Delivery Lines ......................................................................................................... 15
2.6.4 Proton Exchange Membrane ............................................................................................... 15
3. Economic/Business Plan Analysis ...................................................................................................... 16
3.1 Capital Costs ............................................................................................................................... 16
3.1.1 Construction ........................................................................................................................ 16
3.1.2 Solar .................................................................................................................................... 17
3.1.3 Geothermal .......................................................................................................................... 17
3.1.4 Windmill ............................................................................................................................. 17
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3.1.5 Biomass ............................................................................................................................... 17
3.2 Economic Justifications .............................................................................................................. 18
3.2.1 Insulation ............................................................................................................................. 18
3.2.2 Geothermal .......................................................................................................................... 18
3.2.3 Biomass ............................................................................................................................... 18
3.2.4 Wind & Solar ...................................................................................................................... 19
3.3 Operational Costs ........................................................................................................................ 19
3.4 Life Cycle Analysis ..................................................................................................................... 19
4. Environmental Analysis ...................................................................................................................... 20
4.1 Building Environmental Analysis ............................................................................................... 20
4.2 Geothermal Environmental Analysis .......................................................................................... 21
4.3 Hydrogen Environmental Analysis ............................................................................................. 21
4.4 Energy Efficiency ....................................................................................................................... 21
4.5 Carbon Dioxide Emissions.......................................................................................................... 22
5. Marketing and Education Plan ............................................................................................................ 24
5.1 Target Audience .......................................................................................................................... 24
5.2 Main Objectives .......................................................................................................................... 24
5.3 Key Messages ............................................................................................................................. 24
5.4 Implementation and Continued Education .................................................................................. 25
6.0 References ....................................................................................................................................... 27
Appendix A .................................................................................................................................................. A
Appendix B .................................................................................................................................................. B
Appendix C .................................................................................................................................................. C
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Table of Figures Figure 1: Integrated facility energy system overview .................................................................................. 1
Figure 2: Topographical building view ......................................................................................................... 2
Figure 3: Topographical building layout ...................................................................................................... 2
Figure 4: Basement and Second Floor Topographical Layout ...................................................................... 3
Figure 5: Sectional and elevation building layouts ....................................................................................... 3
Figure 6: Southwest Building View………………………………………….……………………………..4
Figure 7: North interior wall facing south into courtyard ............................................................................. 4
Figure 8: Balcony Overlooking the Courtyard ............................................................................................. 5
Figure 9: Southeast Bird‟s Eye View ............................................................................................................ 5
Figure 10: Biomass process flow diagram ................................................................................................. 10
Figure 11: Plumbing and geothermal documentation……………………………………………………...A
Figure 12: Structural calculations ............................................................................................................... B
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List of Tables Table 1: Solar power generation New York, NY .......................................................................................... 7
Table 2: Wind power generation………………….………………………………………………………..9
Table 3: Capital costs ................................................................................................................................. 16
Table 4: Energy efficiency of generating systems ..................................................................................... 22
Table 5: Marketing costs…………………………………………………….…………………………….25
Table 6: Preliminary HAZOP analysis ....................................................................................................... C
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1. The Design
The design of the Mark Estill Student Life centre is composed of a ground level containing a
cafeteria, offices, lounges, and a courtyard; a second story containing a radio broadcasting area,
study rooms, offices, a patio, and a courtyard; and a basement level housing a bookstore, an art
gallery, as well as the mechanical systems of the building. The combined floor space is
calculated to be 76,000 ft2, with a footprint of 40,000 ft
2. The Java City building was demolished
in order to make adequate room for the Mark Estill Student Life centre.
Energy will be generated using a combination of solar, wind, and biomass renewable resources.
Geothermal systems will also being utilized to heat the building. An electrolyser will be used to
generate hydrogen from excess energy produced by the renewable energy systems. The stored
hydrogen will then be used to power the building when electricity generation cannot meet
demand and to fuel a campus hydrogen powered vehicle. Intelligent window placement in the
exterior walls and roof will allow for indirect lighting during daylight hours, which will likely
decrease the electrical load significantly during the day.
For an overview of the power systems see Figure 1 .
Figure 1: Integrated facility energy system overview
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1.1 Building Design
The layouts and floor plans for the building can be found in the following figures.
Figure 2: Topographical building view
Figure 3: Topographical building layout
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Figure 4: Basement and Second Floor Topographical Layout
Figure 5: Sectional and elevation building layouts
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Figure 6: Southwest Building View
Figure 7: North interior wall facing south into courtyard
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Figure 8: Balcony Overlooking the Courtyard
Figure 9: Southeast Bird’s Eye View
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1.1.1 Plumbing Plan
The plumbing layout can be found in Appendix A. The Geothermal piping for space heating
throughout the facility appears within the plumbing layout. A value of $0.45 per square foot was
used to estimate the cost of the plumbing system (RSMeans, 2004). This resulted in an estimate
of $33,225.
1.1.2 Structural Design Description
The structural design for the facility is based primarily on the principle of redundancy through
repeated elements, which would be mass-produced and erected in series to speed construction
thus controlling both construction and maintenance costs. The structural system consists of
hollow structural steel (HSS) columns on concrete footings or concrete foundations, supporting
W-flange steel beams with open web steel joists. Slabs are corrugated steel deck with a
reinforced concrete topping. The roof structure is fabricated steel trusses with open web steel
joists supporting corrugated steel deck. On the north face of the sloped roofs, the trusses support
beams at the top and bottom of the pitch on which vertically oriented open web steel joists
support sloping glazing units. See Appendix for sizing calculations.
1.1.3 Electrical Loading Details
The electrical loading of the building was estimated using a figure of 10.4 kWh per square foot
per year (Energy Information Administration, 2003). This figure represents the total amount of
electricity consumed in a non-mall building and does not incorporate the electrical load of the
kitchen. The electrical loading is based on the assumption that the contract company responsible
for kitchen services will draw their electricity demand directly from the grid. Multiplying by the
area of the building, the overall electrical load was determined to be 900,000 kWh/year on
average. The electrical energy required to heat the building was determined to be 74,295
kWh/year. This was calculated by determining the heat required to maintain the building at a
specific temperature, followed by the equivalent amount of electricity required to produce 70%
of that heat from a geothermal source. Several case studies demonstrate that it is more
economical to use geothermal heat for approximately 70% of the heating requirement and
supplement the remaining 30% with a natural gas furnace (Cane, 2000, and Energy Services,
2008).
1.2 Solar Design
A solar cell array was chosen that uses a constant angle of elevation, which minimizes capital
and maintenance costs. The choice of elevation angle for solar cells is of the utmost importance
as this determines the angle at which the sun's radiation will strike the solar array at the peak
production time. The majority of solar radiation is collected at midday and so the elevation
should be selected so that throughout the duration of the year the average midday solar radiation
is perpendicular to the solar array. Due to the characteristics of the sun's path through the sky the
horizontal angle selected for the aforementioned criteria is equal to the latitude at which the solar
array will be located (Lasnier, 1990). In this circumstance this angle will be approximately
40.75 degrees, i.e., the latitude of Farmingdale, NY (Google Maps).
Solar power is generated through the collection of solar radiation and thus the amount of
electricity generated by the solar array will be equivalent to the amount of solar radiation
collected and the efficiency of the array. The amount of solar radiation that is received upon a
surface at 40.75 degrees is available in a table of solar insolation for New York, NY, the closest
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city. This data takes into consideration all mitigating effects such as weather. These can be
found in (Whitlock, 2000).
Owing to the fact that solar cells are never perfectly efficient in their conversion of solar energy
to electricity the concept of peak power must be implemented to simplify calculations. Peak
power is the amount of power generated by a square metre of solar cells exposed to 1000 Watts
per square metre of solar light (Solarbuzz, LLC, 2008). A conversion can be made between the
solar radiation and the electricity generated by the solar cells. This data is also presented in
Table 1.
Table 1: Solar power generation New York, NY
Month Solar Radiation
[kWh/sqm day]
Electricity Generation
[kWh/kWp day]
Power Generated
During Day[kW]
Sunlight per Day
[hour]
January 1.67 1.2533 37.17 7.41
February 2.37 1.7787 46.7 8.37
March 3.41 2.5592 58.21 9.67
April 3.93 2.9495 58.67 11.05
May 5.11 3.8351 68.89 12.24
June 5.48 4.1127 70.30 12.86
July 5.26 3.9476 68.78 12.62
August 5.01 3.7600 71.13 11.62
September 4.05 3.0395 64.96 10.29
October 2.85 2.1389 52.83 8.9
November 1.82 1.3659 38.87 7.73
December 1.4 1.0507 32.39 7.13
Peak power is a useful base point for the design of this system as it can account for the total area
taken up by solar modules on the roof space available and will also aid in the calculation of
costs. The calculation for total amount of roof space will be calculated for the solar cells. In this
application it is desired for all solar cell surfaces to be exposed to solar radiation at all high
points in the year. The lowest angle of elevation that the sun rises to is 15 degrees less than the
latitude (Komp, 1981), in this application that will be 25.75 degrees. In addition, the roof space
available for solar cells has an angle of elevation of 18 degrees. Now the total available area of
solar modules can be calculated from the available roof space and trigonometric calculations
using the above data. This results in the relationship:
Therefore, the total installed area of solar modules is 1649 square metres from the fact that 2187
square metres of roof space is available.
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The standard area per kilowatt peak is known to be 7 square metres of active photovoltaic area
(South Facing, 2006). In the calculations to consider the amount of roof space required the solar
modules will be considered to have a length of 1 metre in the direction of elevation, a typical
industrial size. With this knowledge is possible to calculate the total peak power installed on the
roof. This is found to be 219.8 kilowatts peak.
Knowing the total peak power installed it will be desired to know the amount of electricity
generated at various points in the year. Since the solar insolation tables are given in values
averages over an entire day, this will have to be recalculated into power during the productive
solar hours. The number of hours of sunlight in a particular day can be calculated with what is
referred to as the sunrise equation (Watts) and the twilight hours have been subtracted as they do
not provide direct sunlight to the solar modules. Using the data generated through the sunrise
equation, the solar insolation tables and the total peak power installed it is possible to calculate
the average power generated through solar radiation at various points of the year and the total
number of productive hours. This data can be found in .
1.3 Geothermal Design
Geothermal system is a flameless, combustion free method of providing the heating and cooling
energy required for a commercial building. The only energy input into the system is the electrical
energy required to run the heat pumps and ground loop fluid circulating pumps. This energy is
being produced by using on site renewable resources such as biomass, wind and solar energy.
Each unit of electrical energy into the system provides on average 3-4 times the conventional
equivalent heating/cooling energy to the building by using ground source heat pumps in
conjunction with the earth loop. The environmental impacts associated with the geothermal
technology are minimized due to the heat pump‟s high operating efficiency. According to the US
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), geothermal systems are the most energy-efficient,
environmentally friendly as well as cost effective space conditioning systems available
(GeoExchange). Discuss merits of vertical closed loop geothermal piping.
1.3.1 Calculations
The calculations were based on the amount of energy required to either heat or cool the building.
All months of the year on average except June, July, and August were found to require heating.
The amount of electricity required to heat the building was calculated by converting the amount
of heat lost through the building exterior into an equivalent electrical load.
The geothermal system was sized to provide 70% of the maximum heat loss from the building,
which was calculated to be approximately 65,000 kWh/month. With a standard heat pump size
of 12,000 kWh/month (Cane, 2002), it was determined that five parallel heat pumps are required.
Based on a value of 100 meters per 2500 kWh/month (Cane, 2002), the length of pipe required
was determined to be 1800 meters. This length of pipe will require approximately 75 bore holes,
each containing 30 meters of vertical piping. An estimated 500 meters of extra piping was also
incorporated into the calculations to account for the piping throughout the building. Based on the
length of pipe and the coefficient of performance realized by the geothermal system, the amount
of energy required to operate the system per month was determined. Based on friction losses
through the piping system it was determined that a 15 horsepower pump would be sufficient and
would require an average of 50,000 kWh/year. The heat pump energy required was determined
to be an average of 20,000 kWh/year.
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1.4 Windmill Design
Wind power generated is proportional to the cube of the velocity of wind. Therefore, if the total
amount of power contributed by wind is to be calculated the data for the wind velocities in
Farmingdale, NY is required. This data is presented in Table 2 (City Data, 2008).
The wind turbine that will be employed in this application is not unidirectional, that is it swivels
in the direction of the wind, and therefore, the wind direction is not important in this application.
This windmill will be provided by Wind Turbine Industries (Sagrillo, 2007).
Wind generators will typically bring little power production when used in the small scale but
they provide a valuable source of power during the evening hours when solar generation will not
occur and will also provide educational demonstration. As such, a small number, ten, of wind
turbines were selected to be installed. These wind turbines will be installed outside the building
at a short distance to minimize the amount of wiring required to deliver the power to the
building.
Wind turbines will typically convert wind to power along a cubic function and thus a cubic
equation should be fit to the power production profile as given by the manufacturer (Sagrillo,
2007). After fitting this wind data to a curve the total amount of power generated can be
calculated on a monthly basis. This data can be found in Table 2.
Table 2: Wind power generation
Month Wind Velocity [mph] Power Produced [kW]
January 11.5 32.92
February 12.0 37.31
March 12.2 39.21
April 12.0 37.31
May 11.0 28.89
June 10.1 22.37
July 9.5 18.62
August 9.0 15.73
September 9.0 15.73
October 9.8 20.38
November 10.6 25.78
December 11.1 29.61
1.5 Biomass Design
Another method of energy production is the use of „biogas‟. To obtain biogas, food waste
produced on campus can be used as a feedstock for an anaerobic digester. The biogas produced
is composed mainly of methane and carbon dioxide gas (University of Adelaide, 2008). By
combusting the biogas for use inside an engine, the potential energy housed within the food
waste is converted to electrical energy for use within the student life centre; this provides
valuable electrical energy a peek demand periods or at night. See Figure 10 on next page for
visual.
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Figure 10: Biomass process flow diagram
1.5.1 Anaerobic Digestion
Anaerobic digestion refers to the decomposition of organic matter by bacteria in the absence of
oxygen. It is widely used to treat wastewater and organic wastes. It is useful because the bacteria
reduce the volume and mass of the waste, while producing biogas at the same time (Monsal,
2008).
The actual process of anaerobic digestion is separated into three separate steps. The first is
hydrolysis. In this step, enzymes produced by hydrolytic bacteria break down and liquefy
insoluble organic polymers such as carbohydrates, cellulose, proteins and fats. The second step is
acetogenesis. This involves converting organic acids formed in the hydrolysis stage to acetic acid
by acetogenic micro-organisms. The final step is called methanogenesis, which involves the
conversion of the acetic acid to methane. This is facilitated by methanogenic bacteria (Residua,
2008).
1.5.2 Method
Food waste will be collected from the campus and taken to a storage area in the basement of the
student life centre. Having separate waste bins for food waste and proper advertisement will
ensure that a maximum amount of food waste collection will be achieved.
Before the waste can be digested, it needs to be processed. The first step is to shred the waste.
This is done for two reasons. The first is that it aids in the removal of objects like plastic bags.
The second reason is that it increases the available surface area for bacteria attachment. This
promotes the hydrolysis step of biodigestion (University of Southampton, Greenfinch Ltd, 2008).
In the next step, the waste is put through a drum screen that removes things like plastic bags.
This is done because some plastics, such as polyethylene, have been shown to reduce biogas
production (Muthuswamay, 1990). Once the waste has finished passing through the drum screen,
it goes through a magnetic separator to remove any ferric objects in the waste like bottle caps.
This is done because iron has been shown to inhibit biogas production (Jackson-Moss, 1990).
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The energy expended to prepare the waste is generally 5% of the work produced at the end of the
process (CADDET Centre for Renewable Energy, 1998). Once waste has been adequately
prepared, it is sent to a holding tank.
The prepared waste is then sent to the anaerobic digesters. The digesters are separated into two
different tanks. The first is the acetogenesis reactor, which is where both hydrolysis and
acetogenesis take place. A skimmer would also be present to remove lighter objects like
Styrofoam. The second tank is the methanogenesis tank. This is where methanogenesis takes
place. The reason a two-phase reactor setup was chosen is because it takes advantage of the
faster rate of production of the acetogenesis bacteria, which allows for a lower tank volume and
because it is a relatively fast rate process (Burke, 2001). The waste streams from the reactors are
sent to a dehydrator where the water is removed and the solids are sent to a composter where the
waste is converted to compost.
The biogas stream that results from the methanogenesis reactor is sent to a gas holding tank. The
biogas is then sent to the combustion chamber inside a 40kW Stirling engine. Inside the Stirling
engine, the biogas is combusted and produces heat. This heat creates a temperature differential
between two different piston chambers. The temperature differential and momentum drive the
two pistons inside the Stirling engine, producing work. The work is then converted to electrical
power (Haywood). The reason a Stirling engine was chosen is because of its high efficiency and
relatively low noise levels. Most importantly there is no requirement to „clean‟ or further dry the
biogas prior to combustion which is energy and maintenance intensive. A continuous combustion
process will also be used to supply heat; therefore, most types of emissions associated with a
non-continuous conventional combustion engine can be reduced (Lund Institute of Technology,
2004).
The process will take place in the basement of the building. A visual depiction of the space
allotted for the process can be found in the floor plan presented.
1.5.3 Calculations
Based on the amount of food waste produced per day, the amount of work produced from the
Stirling engine was calculated to be approximately 30 kilowatts. This was accomplished by
converting the food waste into an equivalent amount of biogas based on what real biodigestors
accomplish. The amount of food waste was estimated to be approximately 1000 lbs/day. This
was estimated by multiplying the amount of food waste generated per person as determined by
the US EPA by the population at SUNY, followed by a factor of 0.3 (EPA, 2008). The factor of
0.3 was used because to account for students who do not eat on campus. Based on these
numbers, the average student would be wasting approximately 330 grams or food each day. A
conversion rate for degradable waste to biogas of 73 % was used, based on results seen in
industry (CADDET Centre for Renewable Energy, 1998). Since biogas is generally considered to
contain approximately 55% methane, the amount of heat generated from burning it can be
calculated using the heat of combustion (U.S. Department of Energy, 2005). Thus, the amount of
heat provided was found to be 964,000 kWh/year. When multiplied by an engine efficiency of
30% (ACEEE, 2004), 33 kilowatts is the resultant electrical power. When the power used to
operate the equipment is subtracted, the final value is 263,000 kWh/year.
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1.6 Hydrogen Design
The design, see figure 1 for an overview of all the components, of the fuel cell includes a proton
exchange membrane based on the versatility and functionality in comparison to other types of
fuel cells, due to the range of operating temperature and feed fuels. Operation of such a system
would require feeds of hydrogen to complete the anodic reaction and a feed of air with the
oxygen present forming the cathodic reaction. The building load was determined to be 900,000
kWh/year (Energy Information Administration, 2003). The power production of the fuel cell was
sized at 130 kW or 115,000 kWh/year, meeting the building requirements with a 15% safety
factor.
Utilization of such a system can be deemed by having surplus power from building requirements
routed to the electrolyser for the generation of hydrogen gas. In the event of a power deficit,
power can be supplied by oxidizing hydrogen gas in a fuel cell to meet demands. Power response
from the systems may be slightly delayed as response times from power draw may exceed fuel
cell production. At these times it will be necessary to draw power from the grid in order to
facilitate an uninterrupted continuous operation. The operation of the fuel cell should match
production as the amount of draw increases. The energy produced from renewable sources in the
day achieves an excess over power requirements, allowing the conversion of H2O into hydrogen.
Power production at night is significantly lower from the renewable sources; however, the cost
associated with purchasing electricity at night time is also lower (Long Island Power Authority,
2008). Based on this lower cost of electricity at night, it was found to be more economical to
utilize hydrogen power during times of peak electricity demand in the grid, as opposed to using
the hydrogen supply as required.
The electrolyser, HyStat-60 sourced from Hydrogenics, is capable of producing peak production
of 60 Nm3/h with an available conversion rate of 5.2 kW/Nm
3 (Hydrogenics, 2008) at pressures
of up to 1000 kPag (10 barg). Oxygen produced in the formation of hydrogen gas can be utilized
for complete combustion of the biogas.
Compressed gas is the method of choice for the size of system due to the requirements of time
delivery, energy input for storage, and environmental friendly concerns. Once produced, the
compressed hydrogen gas will be routed to a storage vessel. Hydrogen storage within the vessel
will be available up to 5000 psi, which correlates to 53,500 moles of H2. Current calculations
have shown that a tank volume of 5 m3 will be sufficient for the best energy economic operating
scenario. Typically peak energy costs occur at the same frequency as peak production of
renewable sources; as such, hydrogen will be mainly consumed in winter months when solar
power production is lower. Hydrogen from the stored tank will also be available for the operation
of the hydrogen vehicle. When hydrogen provision to the operation of such a vehicle exceeds the
power production that is available, electricity at night could be utilized to provide hydrogen at
lower costs.
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2. Safety Analysis
2.1 Geothermal Safety Analysis
Safety for building and occupants is greatly improved by adapting to a geothermal system due to
the lack of flame heating (Collins, 2002). A safety concern associated with the geothermal
system is the possibility of a system leak. Since the ground piping will be connected to each
ground source heat pump (which will be located throughout the building), the possibility of a
leak through these pipes represents a safety concern. The heat transfer fluid in these pipes will be
a 50% ethylene glycol solution which can be harmful if it is in contact with the skin, swallowed,
or inhaled (Oxford University). In order to ensure that all piping is adequate to handle the
pressures applied, all piping and equipment will be pressure tested upon construction for one
hour at 100 psig (Collins, 2002).
2.2 Hydrogen Safety Analysis
Public safety concerns are utmost important for the growth, development and acceptance of a
hydrogen economy. Remediation of risks associated with the operations of hydrogen is
paramount to the sociable acceptance of such technology and infrastructure. Hydrogen itself
presents concerns of flammability, asphyxiation (Oxygen Deficient Environment), metal
embrittlement and compressed gases hazards.
Hydrogen flammability can occur with specific concentrations of hydrogen oxygen mixtures and
exposure to ignition source. Hydrogen has a lower ignition point then other carbon burning fuel
sources. Hydrogen rapidly diffusive into other gases making a flammable vapour ratio unable to
obtained in a well ventilated environment. Most occurrences of a hydrogen leak will cause a
flame velocity too high to be sustained, as such a leak fire is hard to maintain, but does present in
other hazards. Safety standards call for fuel cells installed indoors call upon many different
standards such as ASME, ANSI, IEEE, UL and NFPA. For example, NFPA 853 calls items such
as the fuel cell to be installed behind 1 hour fire resistant rating walls.
Oxygen deficient environments can lead to asphyxiation due to the low levels of oxygen
concentration in the air. Oxygen levels when starting to decrease can lead to headaches,
dizziness, fatigue and even death. Due to the hazards that these pose, proper ventilation is vital in
order to remediate these risks. Proper ventilation will also prevent the flammable air to hydrogen
gas mixture to be achieved.
Embrittlement of the metal may lead to effects causing rupture or pressure loss failure modes due
to the weakening of storage containment and delivery methods. Hydrogen embrittlement may be
avoided by the correct choice of materials. Piping and storage vessels should all follow
corresponding codes for the correct choice of materials to prevent structural failures.
Compressed gases pose a hazard due to the energy of release that it posses, hydrogen in an
uncontrolled release can harm people and damage property and render the building uses. Respect
to the transportation and storage of the hydrogen shall conform to standards such as those listed
before.
2.3 Solar Safety Analysis
A broken module will have consequences of broken glass being on the roof. No people will be
on the roof, excepting maintenance personnel, so this poses more an environmental risk to
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wildlife that may land on the roof. The likelihood of this event is relatively low and can be
mitigated by regular inspection of the solar modules by maintenance personnel.
Fraying electrical work will have the consequences of possible electrical shock to personnel on
the roof or, again, wildlife. Since the modules are not in motion the electrical fray would solely
be a result of weather conditions in the outdoors. Therefore, the electrical wiring that will run
from the solar module itself to the building's electrical system should be protected by conduits
which will prevent exposure of the insulation or wiring to the elements.
2.4 Wind Power Safety Analysis
There are few safety concerns associated with the operation of wind mills. The most pressing is
the possibility of strong bursts of wind accompanied with a malfunctioning braking system.
Excessive rotation could apply forces on the blades such that their structural integrity is
compromised and they break. This can result in scattered metallic debris. This can be offset by
regular inspection of the braking system by maintenance personnel. The windmills that are
being examined offer manufacturer warranties on the braking system for multiple years (Sagrillo,
2007), indicating that malfunctioning braking systems are a rarity. In addition the braking
system will be able to detect the forces on the blades and as such will prevent operation in a
circumstance such as a large amount of ice being frozen onto the blades.
A second concern with windmills is the actual noise and light flicker created by their rotation. In
typical applications the windmill will be elevated to such a level that at maximum rotation the
windmill will only produce ground level noise of approximately 50 decibels. This is well within
acceptable levels of exposure.
A final concern for the operation of the windmill is the fraying of the electrical work just as for
solar modules. Likewise, the electrical work after the turbine is only subject to environmental
stresses and should therefore be enclosed in conduit to protect the wiring from the elements. The
electrical components housed within the turbine itself are covered under warranty and can be
detected through poor energy production. Additionally, because the components are housed
within an enclosure, the effect of poor wiring within the turbine has been mitigated to a degree.
2.5 Biogas Safety Concerns
The shredder, drum separator, evaporator, Stirling engine, and magnetic separator are all pieces
of mechanical equipment with moving parts. As such, they need to be safeguarded so that an
operator will not accidentally injure themselves while working with or inspecting the equipment.
A lock out/tag out procedure will be implemented to ensure that the machines will not be running
while they are being serviced or cleaned.
The acetogenesis and methanogenesis tanks will be operating at atmospheric temperature;
therefore, the risks of explosion and buckling under pressure are minimized. To ensure that an
explosion or buckling does not occur in the event of a pressure build up or loss, pressure relief
valves will be installed and thick tank walls will be used. Since the off gas will be composed
mainly of methane, the gas will be sent to a tank instead of being vented to the atmosphere.
Alarm systems will trigger when the pressure relief system is activated and the process feed will
be halted. An operator will also perform regular pressure checks.
15
2.6 Most Important Safety Concerns
In determining what the most pressing safety concerns were, an introductory hazard and
operability study was performed. This can be found in Appendix C.
2.6.1 Electrolyser
The possibility of a leak of hydrogen into the hydrogen room may lead to asphyxiation and
flammable environments. Inherent safety design can be approached by making sure that the
pressure of hydrogen supply and delivery is not at pressures in excess of operation of the fuel
cell. Active safety design consideration can be to make sure that there are minimal places that the
hydrogen can leak in delivery and supply lines. Installation of piping should conform to codes
with safety allowance for overpressure protection. Active controls can be implemented by
making sure that there is always adequate ventilation to the atmosphere preventing an
environment where either asphyxiation or a flammable environment may be achieved. The rapid
diffusion of hydrogen in air promotes such a system. Fire suppression systems should be
included. Gas detection should also be included as well as monitoring of pressure drops across
the system. Procedural controls can be implemented as well routine pressure checks of the
system would help determine if any leaks are present and checking gas monitoring and
ventilation systems so that they are always in correct working order.
2.6.2 Hydrogen Storage Tank
The hydrogen storage tank has been identified as a high public safety risk. Safety considerations
can be implemented in such a system in order to prevent unnecessary injury, loss of life or
property. Controls can be implemented such as pressure monitoring systems and procedural
pressure checks to confirm that no leaks are present. Hydrogen combustion presents with no
visible flame and as such if a leak from the hydrogen storage tank where to occur to visual
indication of such would not be present. In order to provide adequate safety considerations heat
sensors around the tank and gas analyzers could be operated to monitor the possibility of release
and combustion. Pressure relief systems should be in place in case such a system malfunctions
and over pressure occurs.
2.6.3 Biogas Delivery Lines
Based on the hazard and operability risk calculations, a leak in the biogas delivery lines poses a
major public safety concern. The reason for this is the release of biogas into the building.
Methane is listed as extremely flammable, explosive, and as an asphyxiant. The lower explosive
limit of 5% in air; therefore, extreme caution must be used in the event of a biogas leak (BOC
Gases, 1996). To mitigate this risk, we will install heat sensors and methane sensors to detect a
leak or a flame. A fire suppression system will also be installed. An automatic shutoff of the
process will occur if a leak or flame is detected. The enclosure room will also be fire proofed
according to NFPA standards. Frequent inspection of the pipe lines will also be done to ensure
that there are no leaks.
2.6.4 Proton Exchange Membrane
The operation and design of the fuel cell has been identified in the HAZOP to have a high public
safety concerns with the possibility of leaks around the flow of hydrogen. Safety design can be
implanted around the system as identified in the electrolyser systems. These mainly include
proper ventilation and air exchange systems, correct pressure rating of supply lines, procedural
pressure checks, and gas detection for a flammable environment or leaking. Additional controls
for such a system should be pressure relief in the case of overpressure.
16
3. Economic/Business Plan Analysis
3.1 Capital Costs
Table 3: Capital costs
Categories Cost 2009 on Long Island Demolition $637,207.54
Basement $2,173,443.67
Ground Floor $3,742,271.80
Second Floor $1,459,787.14
Roof $1,212,305.85
Solar & Wind $2,293,413.69
Geothermal $1,632,249.22
Biomass $148,540.84
Hydrogen System $1,390,000.00
Insulation $3,311,757.42
Marketing $6,704.25
Landscaping $2,000,000.00
Total Project $20,007,681.41
Renewable Energy Operations $170,529.90
Building Maintenance $429,390.42
Yearly Cost Savings $48,646.16
3.1.1 Construction
The construction costs attributed to the Mark Estill Student life centre were determined using RS
Means costing data. RS Means collects data from major construction sites across the United
States and Canada to produce accurate costing information for any given year. Costs were
broken down into materials and labour costs for each building section and required demolition.
RS Means resources provide location indices across North America. Long Island is listed as
126.4, which means that to build on the island it requires a 26.4% cost increase as compared to
the average location across the continent. The inflation index is not provided by RS Means and
was conservatively estimated to be 4% per year. Taking a base year of 2004, the inflation
indices from 2004-2009 and 2007-2009 were calculated to be 116.99 and 108.16, respectively
(RSMeans, 2004). All cost data presented refers to the year 2009.
To properly construct the student life center for maximum benefit and to ensure a safe and timely
construction process, the location referred to Java City must be demolished. Demolition costs
were estimated with RS Means resources and include rubbish disposal, long haul, and
destruction of a two storey building. The overall demolition costs were determined to be
$637,207.
Costs associated with architecture fees and overhead & profit were approximated with a case
study of a similar two storey student union in the RS Means catalogue. The case study suggests
that architecture and overhead & profit comprise 7% and 25% (RSMeans, 2004) of overall
construction costs, respectively and were applied as such. The architecture fees and overhead &
profit costs associated were determined to be $520,779 and $1,859,928.
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By design, it is possible to reduce installation and labour costs by using materials that can be
easily assembled and pre-fabricated. Build-ability, as it is commonly referred to, is a modern
method of cost savings and can reduce installation and labour costs by an average of 7% (Smith,
2007). These savings were applied to the overall installation of materials and are responsible for
reducing costs by $120,313.
By applying the inflation and location indices to the overall construction costs, renewable
technologies, architecture fees and overhead & profit, the overall cost for construction and
implementation of this project was determined to be $20,007,681.
3.1.2 Solar
Solar modules are typically priced based on the peak power that is desired to be installed.
Complete installation costs are typically around $6,710 per kilowatt peak for an installation of
this size near this location (New Jersey Clean Energy, 2007). This cost is the final consumer
payment for the solar modules including all labour included in the installation. With knowledge
of the peak power installed as discussed in Section 1.0, the total cost of the solar modules will be
$1,475,410.
3.1.3 Geothermal
Several case studies were analyzed in order to estimate the initial capital costs associated with
the entire installed HVAC geothermal system (heat pumps, circulating pumps, piping, fluid,
ground loop setup). To account for the affect of inflation, consumer price indexes for a variety of
years have been used (Bureau of Labor Statistics). These sites have been carefully chosen due to
their close resemblance to the climate data for Farmingdale, New York (Oregon Institute of
Technology). In the year 2007, there were approximately 2,890°F heating degree days (HDD)
and 442°F cooling degree days for Farmingdale using a base of 18°C. The initial capital cost for
the installed geothermal system will be estimated using the adjusted 2008 cost per square metre.
Using three case studies (The H.W. Wilson Company, 2005), (Chiasson, 2005), (Chiasson,
Murray High School: Geo-Heat Center, 2005) at a similar climate, the adjusted costs per square
metre were found to be $170.83, $182.18, and $188.99. The average of these was used to predict
a cost of $180.67 per square metre. The fixed capital investment of the geothermal system was
determined to be $1,632,249.
3.1.4 Windmill
Installed costs for the windmill that was selected were given by the manufacturer of the
windmill. The totaled installed cost of a windmill installation is $33,900 (Sagrillo, 2007).
Knowing the total number of windmills to be installed as discussed in Design, the total cost of
windmills installed will be $339,000.
3.1.5 Biomass
The cost of the biomass system excluding the Stirling engine was calculated using cost data from
industrial systems. The initial cost for a biomass plant using similar systems in Korea in 1997
was estimated to be below $125,000 per tonne/day for plants with a capacity of over 15
tonnes/day (CADDET Centre for Renewable Energy, 1998). The system used in the design of
the student life centre is estimated to be 0.5 tonnes/day. Since the larger systems incorporate
more technology, it was assumed that the $125,000 per tonne/day would be an appropriate rough
estimate and potentially take into account any costs that were neglected. The cost of the Stirling
18
engine was estimated using a price of $1,000/kW (ACEEE, 2004). Therefore, for a 40 kW
Stirling engine, the cost is $40,000. By summing the costs and multiplying by the location factor
and inflation index ratios, the costs were determined to be approximately $160,424.
3.2 Economic Justifications
The student life centre design attempts to provide all electrical demand through harnessing
renewable resources, but the associated systems will require regular maintenance, repairs, and
monthly safety inspections. Based on the calculations of energy production, the building will
produce more electricity than it requires during the all months of the year with the exception of
January, November, and December. This excess production can be used to produce hydrogen,
which will be stored and used to generate electricity via fuel cell in the winter months. Most
energy stored in hydrogen will be drawn during peak hours of the winter months to completely
reduce grid power dependency during peak hours.
3.2.1 Insulation
The insulation was increased above the recommended R-values for insulation of a building in
New York State in order to reduce heat loss incurred. The exterior wall insulation was doubled
and polycarbonate 16 mm triple panes were installed for the ceiling and exterior wall windows.
Ceiling windows provide indirect lighting during sunlight hours to reduce electricity costs but
increase heat loss values, therefore windows in series were used in order to increase their overall
resistance to heat transfer. The overall cost of insulation including ceiling windows was
determined to be $3,311,757. As a result of the excess insulation, a cost of $1,888,339 was
realized (RSMeans, 2006). These additional expenses will reduce the equivalent emission from
5000 kg CO2/day for having to heat the less insulated building with a high efficiency gas
furnace. The insulation reduced the yearly heating flow to/from the environment from 740,000
kWh/year to 306,000 kWh/year.
3.2.2 Geothermal
The geothermal system provides an efficient and environmentally friendly method for heating a
building and draws its entire load from renewable resource power production. To determine the
cost and emission savings of a geothermal system it was compared to the cost and emissions
associated with using a high efficiency gas furnace for the heavily insulated student centre. A
geothermal system contributing 70% of max heat requirements will produce 306,000 kWh/year
with an electrical input of 75,000 kWh/year. The supplementary gas furnace will on average
produce 7 kg CO2/day and cost approximately $2000/year in natural gas. The equivalent cost
and emissions of a well insulated building heated 100% by an efficient gas furnace were
determined to be $14,000/year in natural gas costs (National Grid, 2008) and an average of 180
kg CO2/day, respectively.
3.2.3 Biomass
The biomass system collects biodegradable food waste and produces methane to be used in a
Stirling engine. The electricity produced by the biomass reactor and Stirling engine was
determined to be approximately 263,000kWh/year. The yearly operating costs of this system will
likely be 5% of the fixed capital investment and amounts to $7,427 (CADDET Centre for
Renewable Energy, 1998). Another economic benefit is the reduced waste transferred to a land-
fill site as they typically charge a tipping fee. Based on a landfill tipping fee of $70.53/ton (Repa,
2005), using biomass as a fuel would produce savings of approximately $12,000 a year.
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3.2.4 Wind & Solar
Based on local solar data, the solar cells will be responsible for approximately 220,000 kWh/year
renewable productions. Based on local wind data, the wind turbines are expected to produce
236,000 kWh/year.
3.3 Operational Costs
The electricity demand for the building was greatly reduced by the introduction of extra layers of
insulation. When supplemented with a geothermal system to heat the building, the overall
electricity draw was reduced to 940,000 kWh/year. In general, geothermal systems are designed
for 70% of max heating requirements of a building in order to reduce initial capital costs. In this
case, a high efficiency gas furnace will be used to supplement the heat draw during the cold
winter months. The natural gas required by this furnace will amount to $2,090/year (National
Grid, 2008) and produce 27 kg CO2/day during its three months of operation.
The kitchen area for resident and commuter dining will require an average of 300kW to seat
greater than 500 students for three meals a day (Webb, 2003). The renewable resources do not
have the ability to provide surplus power to the hydrogen system while sustaining the kitchen.
As such, the power required by the kitchen will be drawn directly from the grid. By locating an
electricity meter for the kitchen load, the electricity costs associated can be directly charged to
the contract company providing kitchen services.
Water consumption will comprise approximately 1,500m3/year for the biomass system and 9,000
m3/year (Rheem, 2007) for the kitchen services at a yearly cost of $11,990. The kitchen will also
require 4,000 m3/year of hot water. A tank-less gas-fire water heating system will be
implemented to ensure a constant supply of hot water that will produce approximately 140 kg
CO2 in emissions at a cost of $11,000/year. The natural gas water heaters are capable of using
bio-mass methane to reduce the net emissions of the building.
The building will require regular maintenance in the form of cleaning services, safety
inspections, general systems repairs, control systems maintenance, and maintenance salaries. A
general rule of thumb for large-scale commercial buildings is that operations and maintenance
costs will be 5% of its fixed capital investment (Chalmers University of Technology, 2001).
Based on this approximation the operations and maintenance costs for the building will be
$429,390. Other potential expenses may be incurred during unexpected breakdowns in the form
of specialty labour and replacement parts and lost energy production causing a draw from the
grid.
3.4 Life Cycle Analysis
The costs and benefits associated with renewable resource, geothermal, and the hydrogen storage
systems will not stray considerably with appropriate attention to maintenance and detail. The
PEM membranes have to be changes periodically, but otherwise the hydrogen system is fairly
robust. The solar cells may begin to lose solar conversion on the order of 1% per year after the
fifth year of operation. The wind turbines will require occasional maintenance and provide the
greatest possibility for a large investment due to an unexpected failure. The biomass system has
high operating and maintenance costs, and if standard industry techniques are realized it should
not differ greatly from its original state
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4. Environmental Analysis
4.1 Building Environmental Analysis
The student centre has been designed to respond directly to its site on the SUNY Farmingdale
campus in Long Island, New York. This simple first step of orientation has an environmental
impact upon the facility through solar heat gain and heat loss as well as daylight access to
interior spaces affecting lighting use. Using the given location, the building has been oriented to
face south in order to maximize the amount of solar access to roof-mounted photovoltaic arrays.
Each façade responds to its orientation in the quantity and size of glazing, for example, the east
and west facades are limited in their window quantities due to the uncontrollable nature of the
solar gain from the morning and afternoon sun resulting in over-heating or high-glare lighting
situations. The south facing concrete wall on the north boundary of the courtyard would be
ample thermal mass to collect and store solar heat to slowly give it off during the cooler hours,
working in both winter and summer conditions to temper the climate of the courtyard space.
The north-facing skylights, although they are a heat-loss outlet at night, create a great deal of
daylight throughout the public spaces of the facility, which in turn would require less electric
lighting during daylight hours. During the evening and night time hours of operation, all lighting
within the building would be designed to fall within the building perimeter to stop light
pollution, which is a potential problem with 24-hour facilities like a student facility.
Being beside the parking lot for commuters, and serving the commuting contingent of students,
the facility would try to encourage carpooling to reduce carbon emissions caused by automobile
use. In addition to encouraging carpooling, students and employees would be able to ride their
bikes to this facility, since there are ample bicycle racks at convenient locations around the
building.
The location of the building has been selected to mainly occupy what was an existing paved
parking lot surface, which means that the student life centre is not negatively affecting the
permeability of the ground surface on the site. Additionally, the vegetated ground cover to the
south east of the facility will allow for storm water runoff to safely percolate through the earth
and be absorbed into the soil instead of being whisked off site in a storm drain, carrying nutrients
and toxins alike with it.
The usage of water within the facility and on the site is of prime importance to the environmental
sustainability of the student life centre. The landscaping on the site would be designed to require
no watering since it will be primarily indigenous species which are hearty enough to survive in
the climate without irrigation. As much as possible within the facility, there would be water-
efficient equipment and fixtures. Between pressurized dishwashing equipment in the kitchens
and dual-flush toilets and efficient faucets in the washrooms, there would be a substantial
savings of potable water use compared to a building of similar occupancy of similar scale.
The environmental impact of a building can include both the facility, as well as the programs that
it encourages. For this reason, in the student life centre, there will be a comprehensive recycling
program which will include collection for metals, glass, paper, and plastics to be recycled at a
local facility, as well as organic waste which will be used in the biomass plant. Recycling will
also be manifested through the use of building materials with a percentage of recycled material
within it, such as the fabricated steel trusses, and the cement fibre board cladding. For materials
21
that are unable to be made of recycled content, the use of rapidly renewable resources would be
substituted. Examples include numerous fibre-based products supplied by the agricultural
industry and some wood products. Wherever possible, the building materials would be sourced
from local manufacturers or transported by environmentally responsible methods of transit (i.e.
by ship or train as opposed to by truck) to reduce the carbon emissions of bringing the materials
to site.
The quality of a building is largely dependent on the comfort of the interior environment. By
creating a healthy interior environment for the occupants of the student life centre through air
quality and system controls, the facility will have a smaller impact on the greater environment.
The air quality within new facilities is commonly compromised by the volatile organic
compounds (VOCs) within materials that off-gas into the rooms, creating that signature “new”
smell. By using only non-VOC-emitting paints, carpets, and sealants, the student life centre
would help to limit the existence of toxic chemicals in the atmosphere. Other toxins in the air
within the building would be emitted by the biomass plant in the basement. This is a concern
when it comes to the livability of the adjacent rooms, and so there would be airtight seals on all
of the doors and openings into the biomass plant, as well as special attention paid to the partition
walls to ensure their air tightness.
4.2 Geothermal Environmental Analysis
Large scale geothermal power plants have environmental issues such as noise and air pollution,
water quality, land use and impact on wildlife and vegetation although they still operate at higher
efficiencies than conventional power plants. However, the geothermal system being designed for
this project has no direct emissions or noise concerns. The only area of concern is the particular
type of refrigerant used in the ground source heat pumps to transfer energy. Refrigerants have
commonly been known to have an adverse affect on the environment because they deplete the
ozone layer. Over the years older refrigerants, such as R-22, have begun to be phased out and
newer more environmentally friendly refrigerants, such as R-410a, have become widely
available. R-410a is a chlorine-free hydro fluorocarbon (HFC) refrigerant that does not harm the
earth‟s ozone layer.
4.3 Hydrogen Environmental Analysis
The presence of hydrogen release into the atmosphere poses little impact, hydrogen is found in
the atmosphere at low concentrations. The physical characteristics of hydrogen allow for rapid
dispersion making it decrease in concentration rapidly eliminating many impacts. Combustion of
hydrocarbon fuels results in the production of green house gas emissions. The combustion of
hydrogen produces water vapour a clean natural substance.
4.4 Energy Efficiency
The total amount of energy fed to the solar cell and the amount of power generated were both
calculated in Design. From this information the efficiency of the solar modules can be
calculated. This data is presented in Table 4. The loss of energy can be accounted for by
reflection of sunlight off of the module and by some absorption of heat.
The total amount of energy fed to a windmill can be calculated by considering the kinetic energy
delivered to the windmill. The rotor diameter is known to be 9.5 metres (Sagrillo, 2007) and the
density of air is assumed to be 1.2 kilograms per metre cubed. Knowing the velocity of wind and
the power generated, as shown in Table 2, the efficiency of the windmills can be calculated.
22
This data is presented in Table 4. The loss of energy can be accounted for by the fact that the
wind still has kinetic energy after passing the windmill, the frictional forces within the windmill
and the efficiency of the turbine.
The total amount of energy fed to the biogas system can be calculated by considering the
potential amount of methane fed to the system. Knowing the amount of electricity generated and
the amount of waste fed to the system, the efficiency of the biogas system can be calculated.
This data is presented in Table 4. The loss of energy can be accounted for by the fact that not all
of the waste fed to the system is converted into methane and that the Stirling engine cannot
perfectly convert heat into electricity.
The hydrogen system designed was found to have an efficiency of 45.56% considering the
amount of power supplied to the electrolyser and the amount of electricity generated as the two
points of attention. The tabulated results can be found in Table 4. The loss of energy can be
explained by imperfect losses during the electrolyzing of water and the use of the fuel cell. So
losses will always occur in both of these systems due to heat generation and in the case of the
fuel cell there are losses due to incomplete combustion of hydrogen.
The inverter selected for this operation was found to have an efficiency of 90%. This is shown
in Table 4. The cause for this is due to the loss of heat by the inverter as well as the
fundamentals upon which the inverter changes DC current into AC current to be used in the
building.
Table 4: Energy efficiency of generating systems
Source Energy Input (kW) Electricity Generated
(kW)
Efficiency (%)
Solar/m2 0.147 0.01472 10.01
Wind (per windmill) 4.58665 2.61337841 57
Biogas (overall) 150.68 30 19.9
Hydrogen (per kW in) 1 0.4556 45.56
Inverter (per kW in) 1 0.9 90
4.5 Carbon Dioxide Emissions
One of the systems in the student life centre that will emit carbon dioxide is the biomass system.
When biogas undergoes complete combustion, it produces carbon dioxide and water. In the
absence of complete combustion carbon monoxide is also formed. Other constituents of the
biogas result in minute amounts of sulphur dioxide; however, food waste tends to be low in
sulphur content and therefore sulphur dioxide emissions were taken as negligible (Australian
Institute of Energy, 2004). As a worst case scenario for carbon dioxide emissions, the case of
complete combustion of methane was considered. This assumption is justified by the non-
fluctuating operating conditions of the Stirling engine, as the emissions associated with a
fluctuating fuel intake are minimized (Lund Institute of Technology, 2004). Assuming that the
biogas contains a maximum of 45% carbon dioxide along with the minimum 55% methane
(U.S. Department of Energy, 2005), the calculated amount of carbon dioxide released to the
atmosphere in a day of operation is approximately 480,000 grams. Biomass is generally
considered to be carbon neutral because the carbon dioxide that is released when the biogas is
burned would have been absorbed from the atmosphere during the cycle of growth and harvest of
the organic matter. While this is not necessarily true in all cases due to the energy that goes into
23
harvesting and transporting the food products, it still results in a decrease in carbon emissions
when compared to conventional fossil fuels (Energy System Research Unit, 2002).
In addition to the biomass system, carbon dioxide will also be emitted due to natural gas use in
the furnace and water heating systems. These will be responsible for an average daily release of
146,859 grams of carbon dioxide.
Therefore, the net daily carbon dioxide emissions will average 626,859 grams of carbon dioxide,
146,859 grams of carbon dioxide if we neglect the biomass emissions as discussed above. If the
building were to have not used geo-thermal and had instead used a furnace of efficiency 90% the
daily emissions would 800,408 grams of carbon dioxide. If the building were to use typical
insulation in addition to the previous change the average daily emissions of carbon dioxide
would be 1,053,492 grams. The difference between these figures and the current emissions do
not account for the additional reductions in carbon dioxide emissions due to use of renewables
instead of grid power.
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5. Marketing and Education Plan
In order to ease fears and apprehensions that the general public has towards new technologies, it
is the job of those who are properly education and know the facts to educate on the advantages of
the new technologies and re-assure them of their efficiency, safety and ability to reliably replace
existing systems. An important part of creating acceptance for hydrogen power as well as other
non-commercial or relatively new forms of power production is the way in which you reach the
public and the specific message that you relay. The following is a description of our target
audience, the specific messages we want to portray and how we will go about getting that
message out.
5.1 Target Audience
The marketing and education plan will be two-fold, designed to penetrate two distinct segments
of the population based on their relationship with the project. The first group consists of those
who will be in continuous contact with the student centre, mainly the students and staff of
Farmingdale Campus. The second group consists of the general population, specifically those in
the community of Farmingdale New York. Both groups will need to be assured of the safety and
reliability of the new technologies being employed in the student centre for both Hydrogen as
well as the other renewable energy sources. Information sessions and public consultation will be
held for staff, students and the general community to indicate how their daily routines will be
changed with new technology.
5.2 Main Objectives
The most important objective to address with this marketing campaign is to increase acceptance
of hydrogen fuel technologies on the campus and in the community at large. To effectively
increase acceptance among people it will be a priority to ensure that they feel safe with the
technology. This will require reference to the safety features included in the hydrogen system on
site in any detailed literature dispersed. In addition to increasing acceptance, knowledge of
hydrogen systems should be advanced in the community. People will only be truly excited about
new programs if they understand what they are all about and therefore any small increase in
technical knowledge will increase the individual's understanding of the importance of advancing
hydrogen and renewable energy technologies.
The next objective with the marketing campaign will be to ensure that the campus community is
aware of the composting program that will be part of the biogas system. In order to properly
power the building to design specifications most campus compost must be collected. This can
only be properly done if the students, staff and faculty are aware of the program and have
accepted it as important. Therefore, this portion of the campaign must include technical
education to convince people and a description of the compost program so that they can become
involved.
5.3 Key Messages
As mentioned above, the most important message will be the safety of hydrogen technologies.
This will not only address the student centre itself but should also hydrogen technologies as a
whole. Only when safety assurance can be supplied will people be convinced of the importance
of the remainder of the program.
The second key message will be the environmental progressiveness of the building itself. This
will require education in each subsystem of the student centre, especially with regards to how
25
much each subsystem will reduce carbon emissions. Further addressing the reduction of carbon
emissions will be demonstration that these technologies are sustainable long term. That is, after
marketing the public should be convinced that these technologies will be able to provide
adequate power for years to come.
5.4 Implementation and Continued Education
The initial marketing blitz announcing the Student Centre, trying to help educate the public and
get them on board with the idea of alternative energies will begin during the construction phase
of the building. People will be curious as to what the new student centre will be like and the
marketing and education should begin to help ease people into the idea of Hydrogen and other
alternative energy sources. The first wave of advertising will occur as construction commences
and is to include full page advertisements in the school, local and regional newspapers as well as
posters throughout the Farmingdale campus and information brochures. The second wave of
marketing will happen one week prior to the building opening and include the Compost Cards.
Advertisements will be constructed and published in the school as well as in the community
newspaper. Posters will also be put up around the SUNY campus including the Farmingdale
campus. A brochure will also be made that outlines the advantages of using renewable energies
to reduce dependence on fossil fuels. Each new technology will be outlined briefly and short
descriptions of benefits as well as safety and reliability will be included. The brochure will be
aimed at educating people with a bit more of the details and facts behind renewable energy
technologies and their use in our design.
Table 5: Marketing costs
Dimensions Numbers Cost ($)
Posters 58” X 40” 20 1,293.80
20” X 14” 50 858.50
Brochures 5.5” X 8.5” 100,000 1,937.22
Compost Cards 4” X 6” 100,000 2,066.11
6” X 11” 100 48.62
Ad Space Varying 3 newspapers 500.00
TOTAL: 6,704.25
In order for the biomass reactor to be used most efficiently on campus, we are proposing a
campus-wide compost system. The system will be used to separate usable organic compound
(i.e. food waste and paper/cardboard) from that which cannot be digested in the bioreactor
(mostly plastics, Styrofoam, metals and other synthetics). The compost cards will be sent out to
all students and staff at the university informing them of the new system. The cards, in slightly
larger form, will also be located in key areas (restaurants, cafeterias, coffee shops, etc.) where
most of the organic waste can be collected. There will also be signs on the garbage cans
outlining what CAN and CANNOT be placed in the Biomass waste bins.
26
27
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29
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A
Appendix A
Figure 11: Plumbing and geothermal documentation
B
Appendix B
Figure 12: Structural calculations
C
Appendix C
Table 6: Preliminary HAZOP analysis
Equipment Process
Variable
Mode of
Failure Cause of Failure Effect of Failure
Frequency
of
Occurrence
(1-10)
Severity
(1-10) Risk
Design Remediation
Method
Electrolyser Pressure Low
Leak from pipe,
valve, flange or
tubing
flammability,
asphyxiation 4 9 36
Regular maintenance,
increased ventilation, fire
supression
Hydrogen Storage
Tank Pressure Low
Leak from pipe,
valve, flange or
tubing
flammability,
asphyxiation, low
power production
4 8 32
Increase renewable energy
supply for better energy
production
Biogas Line Flow No/Low
Flow Leak in line release of biogas 3 10 30 Methane sensor, inspection
Biogas Line Pressure Too Low Leak in pipe release of biogas 3 10 30 Methane sensor, inspection
Proton Exchange
Membrane Flow High
Incorrect pressure
regulator setting,
valve setting
explosion, leaking,
excess power
production
3 8 24 Pressure relief, gas
detection, flow monitors,
Proton Exchange
Membrane Pressure Too High
Leak, explosion,
fire, asphyxiation,
incorrect valve
setting, incorrect
pressure regulator
setting
leak, explosion,
high power
production
3 8 24
Hydrogen gas dection, fire
suppression, ventilation,
pressure relief,
maintenance schedule,
operating procedures
Proton Exchange
Membrane Flow
No/Low
Flow
No stored hydrogen,
blockage, valve
setting
low energy
production 3 7 21 Draw power from grid,
Acetogenesis Tank Pressure Too Low Blockage up stream tank buckling 2 10 20 Pressure relief, thick walls
Methanogenesis
Tank Pressure Too Low Blockage up stream tank buckling 2 10 20 Pressure relief, thick walls
Biogas Line Flow Too High High pressure in
tank
pipe rupture,release
of biogas 2 10 20 Pressure relief
Biogas Line Pressure Too High High pressure in
tank
pipe rupture,release
of biogas 2 10 20 Pressure relief
D
Equipment Process
Variable
Mode of
Failure Cause of Failure Effect of Failure
Frequency
of
Occurrence
(1-10)
Severity
(1-10) Risk
Design Remediation
Method
Acetogenesis Tank Pressure Too High Blockage tank explosion 2 10 20 Pressure relief, thick walls
Proton Exchange
Membrane Pressure Too Low
No stored hydrogen,
blockage, valve
setting
insufficient power, 6 3 18 Grid utilization
Acetogenesis Tank Flow No/Low
Flow
Leak or blockage in
piping
pipe rupture, spill
of waste/acidic
products
3 4 12 Frequent pipe inspection,
use acid resistant material
Methanogenesis
Tank Flow
No/Low
Flow
Leak or blockage in
piping
pipe rupture, spill
of waste/acidic
products
3 4 12 Frequent pipe inspection,
use acid resistant material
Methanogenesis
Tank Pressure Too High Blockage tank explosion 2 6 12 Pressure relief, thick walls
Dehydrator Pressure Too Low Leak release of bacteria 3 4 12 Flow censor, pipe
inspection
Hydrogen Storage
Tank Flow
No/Low
Flow Blockage, leak
loss of hydrogen,
explosion, fire 1 10 10
Flow meter, regular
maintenance schedule, fire
supression, ventilated area
Hydrogen Storage
Tank Flow High Blockage
back flow of
pressure 1 10 10
Check valve, automatic
shut down on electrolyzer
Hydrogen Storage
Tank Pressure Too High
High energy
production tank explosion 1 10 10
Automatic shutdown on
electrolyzer
Solar Module
Wiring Integrity
Frayed
wires Constant abrasion electrocution 2 5 10
Protective conduit on
wiring and periodic wiring
inspection
Wind Mill Wiring Integrity Frayed
wires Constant abrasion electrocution 2 5 10
Protective conduit on
wiring and periodic wiring
inspection
Geothermal
Internal Piping Flow
No/Low
Flow
Leak or blockage in
piping
pipe rupture,
release of hot
water/ethylene
glycol solution
2 5 10 Flow censor, automatic
stop
E
Equipment Process
Variable
Mode of
Failure Cause of Failure Effect of Failure
Frequency
of
Occurrence
(1-10)
Severity
(1-10) Risk
Design Remediation
Method
Geothermal
Internal Piping Flow High Blockage
pipe rupture,
release of hot
water/ethylene
glycol solution
2 5 10 Pressure relief valve
Electrolyser Pressure Too High Blockage explosion, rupture, 1 9 9
Pressure relief, flow
meters, regular
maintenance schedule
Dehydrator Flow No/Low
Flow Blockage
pipe rupture,
release of bacteria 2 4 8
Flow censor, automatic
stop
Dehydrator Pressure Too High Blockage pipe rupture,
release of bacteria 2 4 8
Pressure gauge, pressure
relief
Electrolyser Flow No/Low
Flow Low energy input low production 8 1 8 None, Inherent
Wind Mill Braking Integrity Malfunction Broken component
excessive blade
speed possibly
destroying blades
1 6 6 Perform regular inspection
on the braking component
Wind Mill Blades Integrity Imbalance Uneven erosion of
blades
destruction of blade
effecting shrapnel 1 6 6
Perform regular inspection
on wind mill blades
Electrolyser Flow High High energy input high production 1 5 5 Increase electrolyser
Solar Cells Integrity Broken
modules
Impact from foreign
object
possible cuts or
other injuries 4 1 4
Periodic inspection of
rooftop
Drum Separator Flow No/Low
Flow
Blockage in
conveyor
possible spill of
waste 1 2 2
Automatic stop when
blocked
Magnetic
Separator Flow
No/Low
Flow
Blockage in
conveyor
possible spill of
waste 1 2 2
Automatic stop when
blocked